Al Oliman believes in tradition. His San Clemente shop, The Senor Barber, offers traditional barber services to men of all ages, and especially to Marines who visit almost weekly to maintain the tight edge that regulations demand.

He learned barbering from Alfred Laguna at the Continental Barber Shop in his native Santa Ana. Oliman's father had the La Poblana bakery next door and encouraged his son to learn the hair-cutting trade.

"We lived in the neighborhood just behind the bakery and my dad told me I should be a barber and not a baker because barbers make a good living," said Oliman, 46. "So that's what I did."

He said he and his wife, Kenya, chose San Clemente because of the family atmosphere. They opened the shop in 1996 and bought a condominium in town. But with six children, they ran out of room and bought a house last year in San Juan Capistrano. And now Oliman has opened another Senor Barber in San Juan at the former site of Mission Barbers, one of the city's longest-running businesses.

Oliman says he loves barbering because he gets to see his friends every couple of weeks as they visit for haircuts. The walls of the San Clemente hold photos and names of Marines, sailors, airmen and Army servicemen.

"I tell the guys to bring in a photo of themselves," Oliman said. "I tell them if they do, I'll give a free haircut. And then when I have enough, I make up another frame with photos."

Standing below one frame, he rattled off the names of the servicemen depicted, with fun facts he remembers about each one: "That's Al, he's a Marine. There's Bob, he was in Vietnam. There's Tom, he walks all over town and sold me my condo here in town when I first got here. There's Norm, and above him, right there is Buck. They were detectives in L.A. together; they had some funny stories."

Oliman continued until he came to some other pictures and his voice lowered: "There's Chuck. He's gone now."

When asked how many haircuts he's given, Oliman started the math, figuring how many in a day, a week and a month before using a calculator and working it out to about 120,000 haircuts since 1986, when he got out of barber school.

He says he sees more young men coming in now, speculating they're after a different experience than what they'll get in a salon. The influx of younger customers encouraged him to open his new location in San Juan, where he kept tradition alive by buying some of the barber chairs he learned to cut hair on – the Continental will be closing soon, Oliman said.

"They don't make those barber chairs anymore," he said.

5 QUESTIONS WITH AL OLIMAN

Q. What did you discover that helped you run your business more efficiently?

A. Going for it and taking the risk, working out the kinks along the way, utilizing our resources, maintaining our relationships and engaging with members in our communities. It's important to be a part of a bigger community – the barbering community and the actual community in which the barbershop is located.

Al Oliman sits in the San Clemente location of his barbershop, The Senor Barber. He estimates he has done 120,000 haircuts since he got out of barber college in 1986. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER
The Senor Barber owner Al Oliman holds a sticker bearing a caricature of himself. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER
Al Oliman cuts the hair of San Juan Capistrano resident Steven Yorba, 44, at Oliman's The Senor Barber in San Clemente. Oliman recently opened a new location of the shop in San Juan, where he lives. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER
Al Oliman does a lot of military haircuts, encouraging his customers to bring in signed photos of themselves that he puts in frames and hangs on the walls of The Senor Barber in San Clemente. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER
Barber Al Oliman says it's hard for him to talk about his military customers without getting emotional. "It's a priviledge to cut their hair," he said. "They do so much for us, and I am grateful for what they do." DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER
You can buy the water-soluble hair pomade Suavecito at The Senor Barber. It is made in Santa Ana and sells at the San Clemente shop for about $13 for a small container. Krew Comb is a hair wax that sells for about $9. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER
On a wall at The Senor Barber in San Clemente is a diagram from the Marine Corps manual showing how regulation haircuts must measure up. DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

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